Hollywood's most beautiful couple is meant to be on the verge of splitting up after a series of ferocious rows.

But now Brad Pitt has spoken out to deny rumours that it's all over between him and Angelina Jolie.

The star has pledged his love for her, stressed his commitment to their family and announced that they are ready for more children.

"Angelina is my love, my partner and the mother of my children," says the 43-year-old actor. "We're a normal family - a mother, a father and kids."

Recent reports suggested that they had reached the end of their two-year relationship, after Angelina hurled a glass of wine at Brad during a French holiday.

But now the chiselled star insists he and 32-year-old Angelina are planning to add to their family - adopted son Maddox, six, daughter Zahara, two, son Pax, three, and biological daughter Shiloh, one.

"Yes, we're ready for another," he confirms.

In a frank interview in a Toronto hotel this week - where he, Angelina and the children were attending the premiere of his new film, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford - Brad speaks touchingly of his love for family life.

"The kids are fantastic and they sometimes get unruly and say the funniest things I've ever heard. Man, they're the funniest people I've ever met.

"It's strange the chaos they cause. We move into a hotel room and boom! It's external chaos but it's the eye of the storm, too, because it's actually very calm. It's calming to me."

Brad grins at the thought of the kids waiting for him in his suite. But he turns serious as he discusses how he and Angelina try to maintain stability.

"The most important thing is to make sure we carve out our time for the kids," he says. "We give them group time and one-on-one time, because it's our responsibility to help shape them. So it's fatherhood and family first, and then we slip into work.

"Angelina and I try to carve out time for ourselves, too, but if something's got to go, it's usually that time."

The six Jolie-Pitts travel the world together, with the children going to school in whichever country they're in. But Brad likes the lifestyle. "We are a very nomadic family and it works for us," he explains.

"The value of it is that the family becomes the core and the places the kids see seep into their consciousness.

"We move well and I don't think it's taking its toll. We have to think about schooling but we're in an international programme so, wherever we go, it's the same curriculum."

Becoming a father is Brad's most challenging, and rewarding, role to date. But he believes paternal instinct helped him bond with his ready-made family.

"It's a learning process and a gradual understanding of what fatherhood means - defining for yourself what kind of father you want to be and just being worthy of carrying the name of 'father'.

"Calling yourself that and seeing yourself in those terms doesn't happen overnight but I'm surprised how much is instinctive.

"You tell the kids something and you're not sure they're getting it but then you see them in action and they pick it up."

Brad, who was married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston, has also had high-profile girlfriends including Juliette Lewis, Robin Givens and Gwyneth Paltrow. Yet he has remained down-to-earth amid the celebrity madness.

Throughout his time in the spotlight, the star, who grew up in small-town Springfield, Missouri, has often taken less stellar roles rather than cash in on his looks.

Brad spends the interview wearing a cap to hide "a crazy skunk stripe" in his hair for his role in Burn After Reading, which he's filming with George Clooney.

But for now, he wants to focus on publicising his role as Western outlaw Jesse James, who hailed from the same area as Brad.

"I was surprised how much pride I found in that fact," he says. "Jesse has been portrayed in film 125 times and I wasn't interested in doing a straightforward, shoot-em-up Western but this is different."

In fact, Brad was just named best actor at the Venice Film Festival for his portrayal, and says: "I'm still a bit shocked. I was stunned when I got the call."

The coveted prize will hopefully erase bad memories of his recent trip to Venice, where a crazed woman jumped from the crowd and tried to embrace him.

Brad, consistently voted the sexiest man alive, was clearly unsettled. "I haven't been jumped like that in a while," he says. "It tells me that we're vulnerable.

"It's something I have been thinking about but I don't want to change my life to avoid those kinds of things. I've had break-ins in the house and I'm dealing with a recent one now. You also develop a radar - you feel it when you are approached by unbalanced people."

But, like Angelina, Brad has learned to make good use of his celebrity status - to promote charitable causes such as fighting poverty and hunger in the developing world.

He has also been using his money and knowledge of architecture to help rebuild areas of New Orleans. "I feel it's incumbent on all of us to lend a hand if we can," he says.

"When I've travelled, I've wandered off the beaten path and once you meet people and hear their stories there's just no way not to want to help.